Question

What are the characteristics of domain eukarya?

Answer 1

Hint: Eukarya or eukaryota is one of the 3 domains of life, the other 2 being prokaryotes and archaea. This domain is home for a wide variety of organisms ranging from fungi, algae to humans.

Complete answer:
Every living thing we see around us, by our naked eyes belongs to the large domain of eukaryotes. Though every plant and animal differs from each other at a great extent, they all possess common characteristics that put them in the same group of eukaryotes.
These characters are:
-All eukaryotic cells contain membrane bound organelles like mitochondria and chloroplast in plants. Mitochondria is the site of oxidative phosphorylation, where ATP is produced which is then used to carry out all the metabolic processes of the body. Chloroplast is an organelle found in photosynthetic plants that contains the pigment chlorophyll which utilises light energy to produce glucose. Some organelles are used for motility too, like flagella, cilia.
-Unlike bacterial cells, eukaryotic cells have a double membraned nucleus. Their genetic material, DNA is enclosed in a nuclear envelope that separates the nucleoplasm from the cytoplasm.
-Cell division in eukaryotes is done by a procedure called mitosis, also called equational division. In this division, replication of genetic material is followed by the division of cytoplasm and its organelles. This division is called cytokinesis.
-DNA is double stranded and linear.
-Cytoplasm contains a cytoskeleton which consists of microtubules, microfilaments and fibres. This cytoskeleton is responsible for maintaining the shape of the cell, anchoring the organelles in the cytoplasm and for motility of the cell.
-The outermost membrane in eukaryotes is a cell wall made of cellulose, pectins, proteins, etc. Cell wall is absent in animal cells.

Note:
Eukaryota is a group that puts a large variety of organisms under one category. Despite this wide variety, the number of organisms belonging to this group is far less than that in Prokaryota, but the relatively larger size of eukaryotes makes the biomass of this group almost equal to that of prokaryotes.